Category Archives: comedy

Welcome to Pod Yourself A Gun: A Sopranos Podcast, where every week comedians Vince Mancini and Matt Lieb (of the Filmdrunk Frotcast) take you through each episode of the most important TV show ever made. In this pilot episode of Pod Yourself A Gun, we discuss the pilot episode of The Sopranos with TV critic Alan Sepinwall who has literally written the book on The Sopranos (okay, co-written), The Sopranos Sessions, available now at book stores everywhere. We dissect every facet of the pilot, from the original Father Phil Intintola, to the objectively terrible Sopranos theme song. It’s just plain awful. It’s barely music. What does “born under a bad sign with a blue moon in your eyes” even mean? Anyway, hope you enjoy the episode as much as we enjoyed making it. And if you don’t enjoy it, va fangool.

Holy hell, gang, can you believe we’ve done 400 episodes of these?? What is that, like 17 straight years of podcasting? With that much pod time is it any wonder that one original host has died and another gone into hiding?

Anyway, we didn’t plan a massive, self-indulgent extravaganza episode to celebrate, but it is a pretty damn good episode nonetheless. We have actual TV star Jake Weisman from Comedy Central’s Corporate (season two premieres tonight!), who joins us to talk about creating the show, the despair of working, and he and I being the first two people on the internet to admit hating Three Billboards. Oh, and about that time he wrestled a heckler on stage and a bag of cocaine fell out of the guy’s pocket.

Comedian, writer, and Thicc Strip pioneer Alison Stevenson also returns, to talk about the high-highs and low-lows of the stand up life, and to yes-and all of Matt Lieb’s jokes. Hooray! You’ll never be lonely when you have the Frotcast.

This week we’ve got a bonus FREE EPISODE. Matt and I review Aquaman, which we were both surprised to find that we actually kind of liked a lot. Yes, there are spoilers, but probably not ones you would care hugely about. The movie doesn’t feel that spoil-able.

Areas of discussion include: how did our preconceived notions stack up to the finished film, and where did those preconceived notions come from? Did Aquaman just build the character around Jason Momoa’s actual personality? We also delve into Jason Momoa’s dopey charm, the big oafish jock you really want to befriend you for some reason. From there we get into the superhero movie’s obsession with monarchy, Willem Dafoe dressed like a geisha, water-driven technologies, and the aesthetic of excess.

Does Aquaman deserve a production design Oscar? And moreover, did DC finally stumble onto a tone that actually both works, and differentiates them from Marvel? And is a background making horror movies, like Aquaman director James Wan has, the best training for a superhero movie? If you want more movie reviews like this, subscribe to our Patreon, at Patreon.com/Frotcast. You’ll never be lonely when you have the Frotcast.

If the Frotcast sounds mad profesh this week it’s because we were down in Santa Ana recording in a real studio — well, a real business, anyway — at Foodbeast HQ. Sitting in with Matt and Vince were Geoff Kutnick (second from right) and Elie Ayrouth (left) from Foodbeast and Uproxx Life editor and author of Danger Gang and the Pirates of Borneo Steve Bramucci (next to Vince). We talked about how Foodbeast came to be, the boys’ favorite Taco Bell orders (shout out to Mountain Dew Baja Blast), and of course plenty of movie topics. Those include who’s going to host the Oscars now that Kevin Hart did a gay joke in a tweet seven years ago, Kevin Smith’s thriving crying-after-trailers business, food porn in movies, Crazy Rich Asians, and more. And of course we manage to fit in plenty of stupid accents along the way. Why? I don’t know why. There is no why on the frotcast.

Donate at Patreon.com/frotcast and leave us a review on iTunes! You’ll never be lonely when you have the Frotcast.

Do you like bad accents and wild tangents? You’re in luck! That’s right, baby, the Frotcast is back! Our old friend Laremy Legel, co-star of the world famous documentary Whoop Dreams, is back in the Frot orbit this week, joining Matt, Vince, and Joe Sinclitico. We discuss Kevin Hart hosting the Oscars, Matt Damon, the idiocy of awards season horserace coverage, Peter Jackson’s WWI documentary, and by popular demand, the mom who named her child “Abcde.” Oh, and the world’s highest-paid YouTuber, a seven-year-old (this is true, sadly). Enjoy, Frot on, and check out our Patreon for even more #Content. You’ll never be lonely when you have the Frotcast.

Comedian Paul Palmeri and Bitchuation Room host Francesca Fiorentini stop by this week to talk about NPR firing their film critic David Edelstein over his bad Last Tango In Paris joke, and bad NPR comedy in general. Also, why does the punishment seem so much worse when the person actually apologizes lately? We discuss screenwriter Terry Rossio saying calling someone “anti-vaxx” was like calling them the N-Word. We also dig into the “tankie” phenomenon and the left’s small but exhausting pedant wing. We also answer your listener emails and voicemails. Matt and I recorded a new review for the Patreon donors this week but you can’t listen to it yet (still embargo’d). frotcast@gmail.com, 415 275 0030, patreon.com/Frotcast.

Matt and I argued about whether this episode should be titled “Das Crapital,” in honor of Matt’s butt eating, or “Da’s Kapital,” in honor of *terrible Irish accent* “Be a good boy ‘n go foight yer da’.” That’s just a little inside baseball for you.

Comedians Jessica Sele and Jeff May return to the Frotcast this week, joining Matt and Vince to discuss the morality of committing hate crimes on a videogame and the mommy blogger who lamented her youngest child not getting as much engagement as his siblings. What kind of future have we wrought? We also get into an uncharacteristically long discussion about Batman. Also, Matt watched The Snowman. Enjoy, Frot on, and don’t forget to support the Patreon, we got lots of extra content this week, including Vince and Matt reviewing The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.

This week is absolutely BURSTING with #CONTENT! Here, I interview writer at large Luke O’Neil about Hell World, the literary newsletter that’s #disrupting the entire #internet ecosystem (or at least, is a way for a good writer to make some extra cash writing good work for people who like reading good work). Luke and I reminisce about the pre-clickbait blogworld internet, bitch about the current state of internet content, and dream of a better future. Other topics include: which sucks more, being in a band or being a comedian?

Originally we were going to include this as part of this week’s Frotcast, but Luke and I were having a good time so we went a little long, so I left it all and decided to release it as a separate bonus Frotcast. You’ll still get this week’s regular Frot, plus a new movie review for the Patreon subscribers. Frot on and thanks for the memories.

It may look like we only did one Frotcast this week, but actually we did two. The other one is a review pod, with me (Vince) and Joe Sinclitico discussing Steve McQueen and Gillian Flynn’s Widows. That’s available here for our Patreon subscribers. Don’t you want to support the Frot? Yeaaaah, you do, you know you do. Seriously though, your support means a lot. AND the more you support us, the less we have to worry about dumb crap like making the show clean enough for advertisers or not getting in trouble at our other jobs (imagine if Bret could’ve been able to make pod, paranoia free… the impossible dream…).

Anyway, money means independence. Paying for content means independent content. Thank you all immensely for your support. Thank you for helping to make the world safe for honest #content.

This week on the Frotcast, comedians Joe Sinclitico and Jane Harrison return to the show to talk about the Crooked Media/Facebook kerfuffle, discuss Creed II and Michael B. Jordan’s ripped body, Joe getting violated by his dog as a boy, and whether I have to kill Matt now because he won a journalism award for his dumb show as if I haven’t been writing on the internet for 11 goddamned years. Oh hey, did I type that? Pardon me, that was a hand fart. Totally not bitter over here. Anyway, we finish things off breaking down the acting attorney general’s patent for a toilet for guys with big dicks and Matt does the Royalty Freestyle. Jeez, do you guys hear these songs? I guess they’ll give a journalism award to anyone these days.